ABOUT
INTENSIVE SHORT-TERM DYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

We all have a yearning for emotional balance and closeness. Unfortunately, many of us find it difficult to experience our emotions: they can seem uncomfortable or even threatening. We learn from a very early age to "ward off" our emotional core, in order to get by in life. This can lead to a myriad of problems including depression, anxiety, isolation, guilt, rumination, lack of intimacy, relationship strife. While patterns of difficulties are common across many individuals, each one of us is unique in the life histories bringing us to the here and now. 

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It may be that you have already sought help from therapists or psychiatrists in the past. Or, rather, this is your first time reaching out. You're making the crucial first step: embracing that impulse to seek help. This already shows the potential for self-healing you have within. And by engaging in this treatment together, we can identify the problems you face and find a pathway to wellness.

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Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is very unique amongst current therapy models. In what way is this practice different in an ever-growing community of therapy approaches? It is grounded on the premise that by not honoring our emotions, we will pay the price. Suffering is often the end result. In ISTDP, emotional experience is front and center. However, this goes beyond simply talking about our feelings. Rather, we will highlight and distinguish the bodily responses that we all have with each emotional experience. Delving further, we will discover the ways in which emotional experience is so often confused with anxiety, and avoided via unhealthy patterns of relating.

Both you and I will be active, collaborative participants in your treatment. Those coming into treatment will find the approach invigorating, surprisingly effective (sometimes immediately), even at times challenging in an encouraging, rewarding way. By working in this manner we can very quickly identify the problems in your life, understand the patterns that maintain your suffering, and develop your innate capacity for a healing, authentic self.